Holy, Black & Gay: How Far Have We Come?

February 24, 2014

This thought- and heart-provoking “teach-and-talk” event features the film “Brother Outsider: The Life of Bayard Rustin” and a dialogue with Bishop Abrams and Rev. Stringfellow.

Bayard Rustin, known as the architect of the 1963 March on Washington was an out gay, black man, and a Quaker pacifist. In 2013, he was posthumously-awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Bishop Abrams is the Presider and Founder of Pneuma Christian Fellowship. She made history as the first female to be called as senior pastor of Zion Progress Baptist Church in Detroit; then, again, by resigning after five years of service upon disclosing to her congregation that she had entered a same-gender loving marriage. Reverend Stringfellow is Senior Pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church Detroit and Director of Ministerial Outreach at the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Sexuality. He works with black congregations on LGBTQ inclusion.